Sports & Recreation

The Hillsboro Inlet exists as a slice of ocean intersecting Broward County's barrier islands, a swath of green waters between mansions. It seems like nothing more than a place to pass through from ocean to Intracoastal, not as a destination for divers and snorkelers. But if you enter the inlet from the ocean side and turn sharply south, you'll see a spot where the water swirls, where the tides get held up in a pool, spinning slightly like a drain has opened below. Here is where the fish get stuck. Colorful and striped numbers fill this spot and congregate in what for fish must be the Bermuda Triangle. There's a small beach here accessible only by boat or a long walk up the beach. Start from there, wading into waters thick with tropical fish. Drop a bucket and you'll be sure to catch a dozen. Reach out to them as you snorkel and dive — they seem so discombobulated in this dead end that they barely move. It's your own personal fish tank, right here in this passage to somewhere else.